NBA 2K13 - Xbox 360http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/default.aspxen-USTelligent Community 1.5.134.12297 (Build: 5.5.134.12297)Shooting Out Of An Online Slumphttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/10/03/shooting-out-of-an-online-slump.aspxWed, 03 Oct 2012 19:25:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2263921Matt Bertz0<p><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/PippenRev610.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>Over the past few years, the NBA 2K franchise has solidified its reputation as one of the premier sports simulations. Packed with well-crafted game modes, best-in-class presentation, and entertaining-yet-deep gameplay, NBA 2K12 was the best sports game of last year. Instead of taking a post-release victory lap, developer Visual Concepts scrambled to address the rampant connectivity issues online. Broken matchmaking, frequent disconnections in the middle of games, and heavy lag ultimately damaged the reputation of the otherwise stellar game. Visual Concepts used the offseason to work on its weaknesses, but in doing so neglected some of its strengths.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">This series has never been touted for its robust online offerings, but after an off year, the performance rebounds into the realm of acceptability. The Online Association improves by giving admins more options to run leagues with their preferred settings. In standard head-to-head match-ups, I occasionally experienced lag and dropped matches, but the performance improved for the most part outside of a fourth quarter bug that causes the scoreboard to disappear.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">NBA 2K13 lacks a dedicated player vs. player league like NHL&rsquo;s EASHL (a major missing piece for a sport that&#39;s perfect for this kind of mode), but at least you can play three-on-three pickup matches on the blacktop with your MyPlayer. Instead of building a fully featured multiplayer mode, Visual Concepts spent its time creating MyTeam, a mode that operates similarly to EA&rsquo;s Ultimate Team. Starting with a squad of scrubs, your goal is to build a team of NBA superstars by spending virtual currency (VC) or real money on players or booster packs.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">The VC also extends to modes beyond MyTeam. Whether you&rsquo;re playing Association mode, MyCareer, or taking on competitors online, you&rsquo;re racking up VC that can be used to upgrade your skill ratings for your MyPlayer or buy new signature skills, animations, and clothing. NBA 2K13 tallies VC totals online, so no matter what mode you are playing the game needs to interface with the servers. When the game launched, it suffered from connectivity issues that resulted in me losing VC and the results of the Association games I just played. Visual Concepts has since tweaked the servers to prevent this from happening.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">Even when games are recorded appropriately, Association mode hasn&rsquo;t moved the needle much. Several of the core concepts, like coach-defined roles determining player happiness, the trade finder, and the NBA Today interface, lay the foundation for a good experience. Sim fans will appreciate the ability to determine their teams&rsquo; first three scoring options with the new Total Sim Control feature, but other core pieces, like the NBA Draft and player free agency logic, need renovation. You have no way of advancing the draft to your pick, and you&rsquo;re not given access to scouting information until your pick is up, which hinders fielding trade proposals. How are you supposed to know whether moving up in the draft is a smart idea when you don&rsquo;t know which players are still available to select?&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">Most of the player movement in free agency seemed plausible, but several superstars made curious career decisions. LeBron James left the Heat to join a barren Phoenix Suns roster, Carmelo Anthony jumped to Orlando, and Chris Paul ditched L.A. for Detroit &ndash; all highly questionable choices for star players overtly concerned with winning championships. Purists may also decry the lack of some new collective bargaining clauses, like the ability to &ldquo;amnesty&rdquo; players with bloated contracts.</p>
<p class="p2">My favorite way to play NBA 2K13 is My Career, the single-player mode that tasks you with writing your legacy on the hardwood. New changes like virtual Twitter followers, the ability to build your own custom Nike shoe once you become a superstar, and meetings with the general manager that allow you to air your grievances give it more depth than similar modes in other sports games. Becoming a game-changing player early in your career is also easier since you accrue VC outside of the mode.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">NBA 2K13 still features a vast selection of classic teams and players (including the Dream Team), but unfortunately it doesn&rsquo;t provide a dedicated historical mode like the past two years. If you want to play with these teams, you need to do it in exhibition or online games.</p>
<p class="p2">On the court, this game performs like a perennial all-star. Taking a page out of EA&rsquo;s playbook, NBA 2K13 relocates dribbling moves to the right analog stick. Transitioning to this new control scheme takes practice &ndash; I commonly found myself tapping the right analog stick to enact a shot (which now requires a left trigger modifier) &ndash; but once you get used to it you&rsquo;ll be breaking the ankles of defenders and bursting to the basket with the skill of an elite shooting guard.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">In fact, scoring on the default difficulty setting in NBA 2K13 is easier than ever. To make the game more accessible to the mainstream, Visual Concepts tuned the gameplay for an arcade experience. Shooting over 50 percent from field is the rule, not the exception, so if you want a more realistic simulation experience I suggest series veterans raise the difficulty immediately.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2">Other gameplay changes, like the dynamic shot generator that produces a rich array of context-sensitive shooting animations, make the action seem less scripted, but several legacy problems for the series resurface as well. Player animations clip through one another too frequently in the paint, too many passes and shots along the baseline clang off the side of the backboard or basket, and players lack basic boundary awareness &ndash; all illusion-shattering problems I hoped would have been addressed by now.</p>
<p class="p2">Niggling complaints aside, NBA 2K13 puts in another solid performance with its unrivaled broadcast-style presentation, improved online experience, and the best single-player mode in sports. None of its new features revolutionize sports simulations, and cutting out the historical mode was a poor decision, but it&#39;s still a polished experience NBA fans should enjoy.</p>
<p class="p2"><b>The NBA 2K13 Launch Trailer</b></p>
<p class="p2">(Please visit the site to view this media)</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2263921" width="1" height="1">NBA2K SportsPlayStation 3Visual ConceptsNBA 2K13basketballXbox 360SportsReviewSee How You'll Assemble Your Dream Team In New MyTeam Modehttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/09/21/see-how-you-39-ll-assemble-your-dream-team-in-new-myteam-mode.aspxFri, 21 Sep 2012 21:03:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2229714Jeff Cork0http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/rsscomments.aspx?WeblogPostID=2229714http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/09/21/see-how-you-39-ll-assemble-your-dream-team-in-new-myteam-mode.aspx#comments<p><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/nba2k130921-610.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p>The next installment of the NBA 2K series includes an ambitious new mode called MyTeam. It lets players draft NBA pros, earn gameplay modifiers, and play against other user-created teams online.</p>
<p>You can purchase new players and all those other extra goodies through booster packs, which are purchased via in-game currency. Players and everything else are ranked in three tiers. You&#39;ll have to pay for player salaries when you play against other teams online, so don&#39;t think you can draft the best players in the league and call it good. In an interesting angle, players&#39; values will rise and fall depending on their actual performance throughout the season. As producer Erick Boenisch explains it in the embedded video below, it&#39;s similar to the stock market in some ways. If you think a player is undervalued, it may make sense to pick him up while he&#39;s still a relative bargain.</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this media)</p>
<p>For information on some of the game&#39;s other modes, take a look at our <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/09/07/breaking-down-nba-2k13-s-game-modes.aspx" title="earlier preview">earlier preview</a>.</p>
<div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2229714" width="1" height="1">NBA2K SportsNBA 2K13basketballXbox 360PreviewSports2k games2kBreaking Down NBA 2K13’s Game Modeshttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/09/07/breaking-down-nba-2k13-s-game-modes.aspxFri, 07 Sep 2012 15:34:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2190435Matt Bertz30http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/rsscomments.aspx?WeblogPostID=2190435http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/09/07/breaking-down-nba-2k13-s-game-modes.aspx#comments<p class="p1"><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/experience/nba-xenon-0032.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p class="p2">Developer Visual Concepts has already revealed the <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/10/25-things-we-know-about-nba-2k13.aspx" target="_blank">changes it&rsquo;s making to gameplay</a> for NBA 2K13 and the <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/15/charles-barkley-joins-the-dream-team-in-nba-2k13.aspx" target="_blank">inclusion of Dream Team</a>. Now it&rsquo;s time to dig deeper and learn what improvements the developer is touting for the various game modes. </p>
<p class="p2"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">My Player</span></strong></p>
<ul>
<li>In previous years, My Player was the name of the single-player career mode where you created a rookie player and tried to turn him into an NBA all-star. This year, My Player refers specifically to the player creation and customization.</li>
<li>No matter what game mode you play in NBA 2K13, you earn Virtual Currency that allows you to purchase new apparel and skills for your created player.&nbsp;</li>
<li>This year the apparel extends beyond what you wear on the court for practice or on the blacktop. If you want to dress up for press conferences, you can save up for suits or luxury clothes. The team shop has real-life hats, shorts, t-shirts, and jerseys for you to choose from, and Visual Concepts plans to add more apparel as the season moves on. Some of the clothing items simply offer cosmetic changes, but others may give you stat boosts to make you a better player. The goal is to allow people to individualize their characters to the point that another person sees your character and asks, &ldquo;Where did you get that?&rdquo; Finally, you can look as ridiculous as Russell Westbrook!</li>
<li>Players can also use Virtual Currency, or VC, to purchase new skills. The specific packages available are smaller this year so you can evolve your skills more quickly throughout your career instead of saving up to buy one huge package. You can also purchase signature skills. Between individual drills and VC, you will have more currency than ever before to customize the way your players acts on the court.</li>
<li>This year, you can even buy pre-game rituals, like Kevin Garnett&rsquo;s chalk routine. Some are individual rituals, while others will involve your teammates as well.</li>
</ul>
<p><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/experience/GM%20sitdown.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;">My Career</span></p>
<ul>
<li class="li1">My Career takes the place of My Player as the destination single-player mode.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">Visual Concepts wants to keep players completely immersed in their careers. To do so, they plan to give you consistent feedback about what you are doing and how you are doing during your career.</li>
<li class="li1">One of the major ways the mode interacts with the player is with a virtual Twitter account. As you progress through your career and become a more integral part of your team and the league, you will earn new Twitter followers. These followers interact with you to congratulate you on big games and give you a hard time after a rough outing. As you get more famous, opposing players may trash talk you, celebrities may name-drop you, and NBA legends may offer advice on how to reach the pinnacle of the sport.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">All of the things you say and do during press conferences or in relation to team loyalty feed back into the dynamic commentary system. If you&rsquo;re acting selfishly or being a bigger man by squelching a perceived controversy, Kevin Harlan, Clark Kellogg, and Steve Kerr will discuss your off-court behavior during the game.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">Last year the teammate AI never understood what kind of player you were, whether it be a spot shooter or a post player. In the lead-up to NBA 2K13, an engineer spent two months developing a new recording system so the AI better recognizes your tendencies. If you post up a lot this year, your teammates start to funnel plays your direction. If you&rsquo;re lingering along the perimeter waiting for a chance to showcase your long distance sniping skills, they know to kick the ball out to you if you have an open look.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">No doubt taking inspiration from the Dwight Howard trade drama from the offseason, this year your player can be invited to sit down with the general manager to have conversations about the direction of the franchise. Once you attain superstar status, you can start influencing his decisions, whether that be the fate of your head coach, the types of players he pursues in free agency, the players you would prefer to have on the court with you, or your position at the club. If you attain LeBron James status you can even force a trade to another team.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">Visual Concepts reworked the AI management logic so it no longer starts trading away your best teammates once you crack the starting lineup.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">The development team also spent a lot of time tweaking the teammate rating balancing so players aren&rsquo;t punished too excessively for minor mistakes a coach wouldn&rsquo;t necessarily call out<strong>. </strong>Hopefully this takes into account when you hold a great player under his scoring average instead of knocking your grade for letting an all-star like Derrick Rose score a couple of baskets.</li>
<li class="li1">A new coach feedback system informs you about what you&rsquo;re doing well and what you need to work on. You also need to listen to your coach. If you take a 90-foot jump shot, he&rsquo;ll tell you to stop being stupid. Try it again, and you may find yourself riding the pine.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">As your career progresses, you have the opportunity to pursue branching endorsements. If you start with Jordan, you can eventually jump ship for Nike. If you achieve a certain level of fame, you make even be asked to create your own Nike shoe. Design guru Tinker Hatfield will give you tips on combining materials and technologies as you construct the ultimate shoe in the Nike Innovation Kitchen.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p class="p2"><img style="max-width:610px;" border="0" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/experience/MyPlayerHomeScreen.jpg" alt="" /></p>
<p class="p1"><strong><span style="font-size:medium;">Association Mode</span></strong></p>
<ul>
<li class="li1">Due to fan requests for the feature, this year you can jump right into a season with all of the current stats, player abilities, and injuries regardless of the calendar date. You could even start a new Association right before the playoffs are about to start.</li>
<li class="li1">Last year, when you chose to sim, the game would start simulating without any direction from you on how you wanted your team to play. This year you can dictate how you want the simulation to run, including tweaking your offensive strategy, whether or not your team crashes the boards heavily, etc.</li>
<li class="li1">Now that the dust has settled from the lockout, Visual Concepts has made sure all of the rules from the new collective bargaining agreement are in the game. With the new CBA rules in place, Visual Concepts has revamped the team-building and trading logic.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">If you buy the All-Star Weekend DLC, it will integrate itself directly into My Career and Association modes. This DLC is free for those who pre-order the game.&nbsp;</li>
<li class="li1">Admins in online Association leagues can reset games, and even change the outcome of games. This includes setting the final score and who scored what if for some reason a game froze toward the end of the fourth quarter and the players didn&rsquo;t want to replay the entire game.</li>
<li class="li1">For the first time in online Association, you can manipulate sliders to fit your league&rsquo;s preferred style of play.</li>
</ul><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2190435" width="1" height="1">NBA2K SportsPlayStation 3Visual ConceptsNBA 2K13basketballXbox 360PreviewSportsNBA 2K13 Developers Talk Animation Detailshttp://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/31/nba-2k13-developers-talk-animation-details.aspxFri, 31 Aug 2012 22:06:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2172752Kimberley Wallace9http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/rsscomments.aspx?WeblogPostID=2172752http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/31/nba-2k13-developers-talk-animation-details.aspx#comments<p><img style="max-width:610px;" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/Derrick_Rose.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p>
<p>Ever wonder just what goes into making all those dunks look realistic? Thanks to 2K Sports&#39; new Developer Insight video today, you now have a little insight into what gives the series its realistic feel. </p>
<p>Developers talk facial animations, ball handling, dunks, and more in the video below, revealing what it takes to make you feel like one the pros.&nbsp;</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this media)</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2172752" width="1" height="1">2K SportsNBA 2K13basketballXbox 360PreviewSportsanimationdunksCharles Barkley Joins The Dream Team in NBA 2K13http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/15/charles-barkley-joins-the-dream-team-in-nba-2k13.aspxWed, 15 Aug 2012 15:00:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2130521Matt Bertz41http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/rsscomments.aspx?WeblogPostID=2130521http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/15/charles-barkley-joins-the-dream-team-in-nba-2k13.aspx#comments<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/DreamTeam610.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<p class="p1">Though many sports games successfully capture the spirit and culture of contemporary sports, few tap the rich vein of sports history. For years Madden featured legendary teams, but stopped short of including the official player names and likenesses. The NHL series celebrated the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; 100-year anniversary with a team of all-time greats like Maurice &ldquo;Rocket&rdquo; Richard, but they had no historical rivals to compete with. With Electronic Arts owning the NFL license, 2K Sports mashed up an impressive roster of Hall of Famers in All-Pro Football 2K8, but without the official team licenses this brilliant concept didn&rsquo;t resonate like it should have.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">Visual Concepts finally struck gold with NBA 2K11&rsquo;s Jordan Challenge, which allowed users to step into the shoes of His Airness in several painstakingly recreated historical matchups that featured authentic rosters, jerseys, and even television broadcast presentation. Both longtime fans and younger hoopsters who never watched Jordan play in his prime celebrated the mode. For NBA 2K12, the development team took it a step further in creating 15 of the most memorably teams in hoops history with the NBA&rsquo;s Greatest mode. Though most of the most memorable players from the past 60 years of made appearances, including Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Wilt Chamberlain, one man was noticeably absent from the festivities: Sir Charles Barkley.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">The former Philadelphia 76ers and Phoenix Suns hall of fame power forward is no stranger to video games. During the peak of his career he graced the cover of his own game, Barkley Shut Up and Jam!, and appeared in countless other games like Tecmo Super NBA Basketball and NBA Jam. After he traded throwing elbows on the hardcourt for throwing barbs as a basketball analyst for TNT, however, he refused to have anything to do with video games. Though 2K approached him about appearing in its NBA&rsquo;s Greatest mode last year, they were unable to reach an agreement.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">With Team USA announcing its roster for the Olympics earlier this year, barbershops around the nation buzzed with the discussion of whether or not the new team could hold a torch to the original 1992 Dream Team. NBA 2K13 executive producer Jay-Z thought it would be a great idea to let these two juggernauts square off on the virtual court.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">&quot;He asked, &lsquo;Did you get the original Dream Team?&rsquo; We were like, &lsquo;We have most of the players, but not all of them,&rsquo;&rdquo; recalls senior producer Rob Jones. Most of the players were available for the right price, but Barkley was still playing hard to get. Jay-Z wasn&rsquo;t having it.</p>
<p class="p1">&quot;He said, &lsquo;What do you mean not going to have the Dream Team?&rsquo; Jones remembers. &ldquo;We said, &lsquo;We don&#39;t feel that it would be useful if you don&#39;t have Barkley on it, and Barkley has notoriously not wanted to be in games since he retired.&rsquo; He said, &lsquo;That&#39;s crap.&rsquo;&quot;</p>
<p class="p1">The rap mogul, Rocawear founder, partial owner of the Brooklyn Nets, and longtime basketball fan demanded Barkley&rsquo;s phone number. In less than 24 hours, Barkley was on board.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">&ldquo;He talked to our VP Jeff [Thomas], and Jeff comes in and goes to the meeting,&rdquo; Jones says. &ldquo;The next day he comes back and we&#39;re sitting in a meeting and the phone rings. He says it&#39;s Jay and he says, &lsquo;Oh, by the way, Barkley said yes.&rsquo; We were like, &#39;Really? That&#39;s all it takes?&rsquo;&hellip; We&#39;re stoked about [it].&rdquo;</p>
<p class="p1">When you&rsquo;re abusing the shaky (by comparison) frontcourt of Tyson Chandler, Anthony Davis, and Kevin Love with the undeniable forces of Patrick Ewing, David Robinson, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley in NBA 2K13, remember to thank S. Carter. </p>
<p class="p1">Now he needs to get on the phone and throw his weight around with Scottie Pippen, the lone player missing from the Dream Team.&nbsp;Pippen is a mysterious&nbsp;exclusion considering he appeared in each of the past two editions of the game. So why is he not in NBA 2K13? 2K Sports is being vague.</p>
<p class="p1">&quot;There&#39;s no doubt in our minds that Scottie Pippen was a key part of the&nbsp;gold-medal winning 1992 squad,&quot;&nbsp;says 2K Sports vice president of marketing Jason Argent.&nbsp;&quot;We continue to have a very positive&nbsp;relationship with Scottie, but were unable to include him in-game this&nbsp;year for a variety of reasons, though we share everyone&#39;s hope that he&nbsp;may one day appear in our game.&quot;</p>
<p class="p1">As one of the best defensive small forwards of all time, the Dream Team would certainly get him on the floor to man up against Kevin Durant. As for now, I guess an aged Larry Bird with a bad back and the undersized sharp shooter Chris Mullin will handle the daunting task. I&#39;m sure that will end well...</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2130521" width="1" height="1">NBA2K SportsPlayStation 3Visual ConceptsNBA 2K13basketballXbox 360PreviewSportsCharles BarkleyJay-Z25 Things We Know About NBA 2K13http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/10/25-things-we-know-about-nba-2k13.aspxFri, 10 Aug 2012 12:00:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:2119026Matt Bertz52http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/rsscomments.aspx?WeblogPostID=2119026http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/08/10/25-things-we-know-about-nba-2k13.aspx#comments<p><img style="max-width:610px;" src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/Blake_Griffin610.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">At a recent visit to the Game Informer offices, </span>Visual Concepts spilled the beans about everything NBA 2K13 has to offer, including My Player, Association, online plans, and a few new surprises. We&rsquo;ll touch on all of this at later dates, but first and foremost we&rsquo;re sharing details on our hands-on gameplay session.</p>
<p class="p2">NBA 2K13 is building off a solid gameplay foundation, but that isn&rsquo;t preventing Visual Concepts from shaking things up. Here are 25 things we learned during our meeting:&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p2"><span style="font-weight:bold;">PRESENTATION</span></p>
<ul>
<li>In past games Visual Concepts felt that after the whistle blew the presentation would often break the sense of immersion with flaws in the way players acted and reacted. The transition of seeing LeBron James make one of his signature dunks, but then stumble aimlessly around the court like a zombie as a quarter came to a close was jarring. In NBA 2K13, the team made an effort to seamlessly integrate ambient actions to make sure that players are doing things they would actually do in real life during dead ball situations.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The dynamic commentary I heard between Steve Kerr, Clark Kellogg, and Kevin Harlan proves they are still the premier virtual broadcast team. The conversations flow seamlessly, they discuss off-court activity and statistics like real-life commentators, and their cadence rises and falls with the intensity of the action.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The broadcast replays are also unrivaled in sports games. This year Visual Concepts has added a few new flourishes, like Nike+ Basketball integration that shows you how high a player jumps during a slam-dunk replay. These replays only trigger if the player making the dunk is wearing Nike+ Basketball shoes.</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/Derrick_Rose.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<p class="p2"><strong>GAMEPLAY</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>It turns out gameplay producer Mike Wang may have learned a thing or two while working on the NBA Live franchise for EA Sports after all. This year NBA 2K takes one of the few good pages out of the Live playbook by revamping its right analog controls to include dribbling moves.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Dubbed the Control Stick, the right analog stick now works for dribbling, shooting, post play, and passing. Visual Concepts says this new control scheme opens up a plethora of new moves they didn&rsquo;t have before.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Isomotion didn&#39;t allow players to do anything standing because it was tied to your movement stick. Now you can cross over, go behind the back, or between the legs. This allows you to set up a guy up the way you would on a real court.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Holding down the left trigger turns the Control Stick back into the Shot Stick from last year.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Visual Concepts revamped the passing so players are smarter about which passes they make. This year if you take the ball down the middle on the fast break and see a guy filling the lane you will make a nice bounce pass instead of an overhead pass that is easy for the defender to pick off. If you want to guarantee your player throws a bounce pass, you can hold the left trigger and press the pass button.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Previous NBA 2K games married the passing and catching systems, which meant that the moment you made the pass, the catch was determined as well. This made it hard to jump the lane and cause a turnover on defense because if you weren&rsquo;t in the passing lane at the time of the pass the system wouldn&rsquo;t register you as a factor. In NBA 2K13, Visual Concepts has separated these systems. The game makes the appropriate pass at the time you press the button, and the intended receiver makes the appropriate catch based on when the ball is arriving. This should inject more variety into the pass catching animations and hopefully make some balls more susceptible to interception.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>For the first time in the series, the controls for a dribbler and a player in the post mimic one another. Twirling the right analog stick to spin works in both states. Since players no longer need to master a different minigame when posting up, it should be much easier for players to transition between attacking the basket and playing with your back to the rim.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Visual Concepts also changed the alley-oop controls. This year when you see an opportunity for a quick basket at the rim, you can mash the A and X buttons to throw it up.&nbsp;</li>
<li>For players who developed muscle reflexes for the Shot Stick, getting used to the Control Stick is going to require an adjustment period. In my short time with the game, I was still accidentally making a dribbling move instead of hoisting up the rock when I saw an opportunity to shoot. Visual Concepts producer Rob Jones says that after playing a handful of games you should get the hang of it.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>NBA 2K games have always packed in a ridiculous amount of animations, but shots tended to play out the same regardless of contact. Thanks to the new Dynamic Shot Generator, the game now uses a physics system to takes into account momentum, the degree of contact, player size, and strength ratings to determine if a player knifes through the defender, is stopped at the point of contact, or gets the shot off but stumbles and falls to the floor. Visual Concepts hopes this will make contact more realistic and keep the outcomes from looking like canned animations.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The physics system introduced by the Dynamic Shot Generator also affects rebounding, blocking collisions, and charging. Savvy defenders can actually take a charge this year.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Speaking of defense, players have more smooth movements on defense and appear to be much more reactive. The physics helps more physical defenders guarding against drives to the baskets as well. If you step into the dribbler&rsquo;s lane, the collision deflects guys the way it would in real life so the attacker won&rsquo;t just slide off the defender. The dev team hopes this will help players feel like defending can play a vital role in the game instead of just feeling like an obstacle.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Last year, the AI had multiple options to attack your defense, but it would pick one approach at random. To cut down on the amount of times a player can cheat the system by standing in an obvious passing lane to pick off a ball, Visual Concepts has developed a reactive AI that is smart enough to know when you are trying to take away options. This year, it will notice your guy jumping the lane and look for a backdoor option instead of throwing the obvious pass.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>To better distinguish between the AI point guard performances in the league, Visual Concepts has added awareness differentiations. While a veteran, pass-first point guard like Jason Kidd has a 360-degree view of what&rsquo;s happening around him, shoot-first point guards or less talented players will have part of the court shaded like a fog of war in strategy games. &nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>In past games, fans found that it didn&#39;t matter how wide the player ratings scale was, because the talented players at a respective position always played the same. To better differentiate between players, Visual Concepts has taken a page out of FIFA and Madden by introducing Signature Skills. Each player can have up to five signature skills, which cover everything from being a spot up shooter or alley-ooper on offense to being a chasedown artist or pick-pocketer on defense.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Most of the signature skills are individual traits, but some players also have skills that extend to their teammates, which Visual Concepts is calling &ldquo;team auras.&rdquo; A floor general will improve the play of everyone else on the court, as will a high-energy defensive specialist.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Visual Concepts is still locking down the number of skill traits for the game, but right now they are hovering around 28. The developer has not commented on whether or not players will gain or lose signature skills as their career progresses.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/Kevin_Durant.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<p class="p2"><strong>BETTER WITH KINECT?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Like FIFA and Madden, NBA 2K13 takes advantage of the Kinect&rsquo;s voice recognition software to offer players a new way to interact with the game.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The Kinect controls work for several basic menu functions, such as calling a timeout, substituting players, changing defenses, or calling plays.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Most of the commands are conversational and supplemented with AI logic. If you notice Kevin Garnett is tired, simply say &ldquo;substitute Kevin Garnett&rdquo; and the AI will chose an appropriate player. If you want to bring a resting star like Kevin Durant off the bench, say &ldquo;bring in Kevin Durant&rdquo; and the AI will choose who should sit.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>These conversational commands extend to playcalling as well. Rather than calling out specific plays for players, you can simply say &ldquo;Run a screen play for Kobe&rdquo; and the game will automatically choose one of the many screen plays for him. Once the play is activated, the play vision art will appear on screen to guide you though the attack.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>You also need to watch your mouth when using Kinect. If you swear after a bad call, the ref may decide to issue a technical foul.</li>
</ul>
<p>Stay tuned for more information on NBA 2K13 in the coming weeks.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=2119026" width="1" height="1">NBA2K SportsPlayStation 3Visual ConceptsNBA 2K13basketballXbox 360PreviewSportsVisual Concepts Teases NBA 2K13http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/06/07/visual-concepts-teases-nba-2k13.aspxThu, 07 Jun 2012 22:35:00 GMT79ef0c18-1c65-4225-984f-fdaeab0f0862:1982226Matt Bertz18http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/rsscomments.aspx?WeblogPostID=1982226http://www.gameinformer.com/games/nba_2k13/b/xbox360/archive/2012/06/07/visual-concepts-teases-nba-2k13.aspx#comments<p><img src="http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/2kgames/2ksports/nba2k13/2k13%20610.jpg" border="0" style="max-width:610px;" alt="" /></p>
<p>Visual Concepts didn&#39;t give us much info in our behind-closed-doors meeting (not even a screenshot!), but we were able to glean a few vague details about the follow-up to the best basketball sim on the planet. </p>
<p>2K Sports always plays coy at E3. While EA gives fans a deep dive of its varied sports titles on the show floor and behind closed doors, the NBA 2K series prefers to play its cards close to the chest and save the big news splashes for the summer months. No screenshots. No franchise mode details. No deep gameplay dives. Instead, we got a tour of the new All-Star Weekend DLC that fans receive for free if they pre-order the game, and we also saw a brief glimpse of the game in action.</p>
<p>The demo started with an impressive pre-game presentation package that once again ups the ante for the rest of the sports genre. The faux finals match-up between the recently defeated San Antonion Spurs and soon-to-be-defeated (fingers crossed) Miami Heat begins with a TNT-style intro that incorporates shots of the various players while hyping the epic nature of the showdown. It then cuts away to a &quot;live&quot; look at the Alamo in San Antonio, a real shot of the fabled landmark.&nbsp;</p>
<p>2K says the game is already running at 60 frames per second, and they promise a rebalancing of the offense and defense. In the past few years the team has continued to add new moves to the already deep arsenal of offensive players, but the defenders best hope was to play off the ball handler and just try to stay in front of them. In 2K13, defenders have more counters at their disposal. Visual Concepts also promised streamlined controls that are more simple to use, but they are saving the details for a later date.</p>
<p>The already impressive animation systems are also receiving attention. Though players move fluidly already, last year&#39;s game still had awkward transitions between when a player performed a big dunk and their subsequent celebration. NBA 2K13 blends these transitions more quickly so players don&#39;t stand around for a half second like they are waiting for a command. &nbsp;</p>
<p>We also saw a brief glimpse of the NBA All-Star Weekend DLC. This package includes a reworked slam dunk contest, three-point competition, rookie challenge, and the All-Star game. The new slam dunk competition uses a Guitar Hero-like button sequencing that requires players to quickly tap buttons in a specific order to execute the dunk. The harder the dunk, the tougher the button chart. Users can select from both current and legendary characters like His Airness himself, Michael Jordan.&nbsp;</p>
<p>If you pre-order the game, this All-Star Weekend content will integrate with the My Player and Association modes as well so you can participate in the festivities during the season. The game logic looks at player ratings and performances to determine who competes, and if your My Player avatar makes the all-star or rookie team you get to participate.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Look for more details on NBA 2K13 as we move closer to the October 2 release date for Xbox 360 and PS3.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div><img src="http://www.gameinformer.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1982226" width="1" height="1">NBA2K SportsPlayStation 3Visual ConceptsNBA 2K13basketballXbox 360PreviewSports